House title deeds

They're online these days aren't they?

We are in the process of selling our house and don't need to provide ours, at least no mention of it has been made by the buyers solicitor who has already received our forms and asked us follow up questions etc

All online now even you finish your mortgage

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

takes about 10 mins, £3 per doc

And to be fair, all you have to type into Google is 'House deeds uk' and the first return is the Land Registry who are the people who administer it all.

So an official copy is acceptable?

I have one of those

Thanks

Why is this not your conveyancers job?

Deeds can be obtained online through Land Registry (make sure you end up on the Land Registry website not a third party who will just contact LR on your behalf and charge for the service). There may well be easements listed in other documents that you need to ring up for. They then send you an online payment form and post copies out. Takes about a week.

I'm going through this right now.

The deeds aren't with the solicitor or the bank, the Land Registry is saying the property isn't registered.  My conveyancing solicitor is using phrases like "lengthy process" and asking me to demonstrate that my mum owned the house she lived in for the last 45+ years.

Good luck.

I’m going through this right now.

The deeds aren’t with the solicitor or the bank, the Land Registry is saying the property isn’t registered.  My conveyancing solicitor is using phrases like “lengthy process” and asking me to demonstrate that my mum owned the house she lived in for the last 45+ years.

Good luck

Is there still a nominal mortgage with a Building Society ? If so they will hold the deeds.

I'd try to 'work backwards' to when there was a mortgage on the property and then go collar the bank/building society for confirmation/ proof of when the mortgage was paid off.

But it's a good reminder to go check ours on the LR - we recently paid off the mortgage as we're told the deeds are now all electronic /online.  It would be good to see it and get a copy for peace of mind.

Title Deeds moved online around 2003, a simple search takes a few minutes and is £6. If the property was never registered with the Land Registry (some are still not) then you need to demonstrate legal ownership. Old Deeds are often held in the house/bank/storage, or occasionally with mortgage providers/insurance companies. If you can't located the Title Certificate and the property was never registered with Land Registry then it can be time consuming and challenging. In essence, you need to substantiate the claim with supporting evidence, this could include witness statements, legal documents, supporting letters from neighbours, utility bills, historic records, bank transactions for the purchase etc. Land Registry are generally very approachable and helpful.

“They will hold the deeds”

I’ve sold two houses, Scotland and England, for father and father-in-law, mortgages paid off and deeds kept by two sets of solicitors. Both sets of sols swore blind they had no deeds, until I found in old correspondence copies of letters written by my father and father-in-law respectively, addressed to their lawyers, which specifically referenced the fact that the deeds were staying with the solicitors for safe keeping. Then, magically, the deeds were found. Though only partially in the case of FiL, he bought an additional slice of land to extend the garden, all conveyancing and surveying arranged through same lawyers, they can’t find any evidence of this bit.

Why is this not your conveyancers job?

+1 Conveyancers will do this as part of the process. There's no need for you to do it unless you are the conveyancer?

The deeds aren’t with the solicitor or the bank

I assume that you've searched the house. Ask around at local solicitors and banks (probably online now 🙂 )

Neighbour has one set, hundred years-old, hand-written, hand-drawn passed to down to her in a will. No LR/solicitor/bank involvement

My building society sent mine when I payed of the mortgage, but as said if the property is on the land registry as above it's a couple of pound for a copy.
But as Cougar has found out there's a surprising number of properties that aren't, and yes it can be a long process, I feel his pain !!

My folks' old house had deeds held (as usual back then) by their building society. When their mortgage was paid off, the society held the last £1 as a mortgage and stored the deeds for them.

Which was fine, until thousands of them went up in smoke.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8055120.bb-insurers-20m-writ-for-fire-damage/

It caused (more than) a few issues when they eventually sold up and moved.

As others have said, if its unregistered land (I think something like 20% of england and wales is still unregistered) then Land Registry won't have them and the OP will need to find them himself but yes they could be with the building society if there's a mortgage.

I think you take an insurance policy out on unregistered title

I’m going through this right now.

The deeds aren’t with the solicitor or the bank, the Land Registry is saying the property isn’t registered.

Good luck!

A nice house up the road from us went up for sale for the first time in a couple of generations. It 'sold' quickly, but it turned out that the deeds couldn't be found. It eventually fell through when the search for the deeds turned up that the house wasn't actually owned by the people living in it, but by a very large estate that had allowed the parents/grandparents (whatever) of the current residents to live in it rent free.

Is there still a nominal mortgage with a Building Society ? If so they will hold the deeds.

To the best of my knowledge, there was never a mortgage on the property (well, in my parents' time there).  Our previous home was a multi-generation family farm, the sale of the farm bought two houses (my mum's and her mum's) outright.  I could be wrong, I'd have been like 6 at the time so didn't take an active role in the purchase.

The deeds for my gran's were held at the solicitors.  My mum's will was with the same solicitor, I have little reason to think that her deeds would be anywhere other than the same place.

The deeds for my gran’s were held at the solicitors. My mum’s will was with the same solicitor, I have little reason to think that her deeds would be anywhere other than the same place.

I expect you're right, but when the sols shrug their shoulders and say "never heard of it mate" there's not a lot you can do about it, short of breaking into their offices and having a look around yourself.

if its old hand-drawn deeds you might find out (like we have) that significant bits of land are registered twice with the land registry, and sold to different people. fun times :/